Ratchet drive



Patented Aug. 15, 1922-.-

2 SHEETSSH ET I.

w \\\\\N/Y// C. W. RUDOLPH AND W. J. SCHLACKS.

a m a C W. RUDOLPH AND W. J. SCHLACKS.

RAICHET DRIVE.

APPLICATION FILED APR I, 1920.

Patented Aug. 15, 1922. l 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

IN VEN 70/?5. W/Lu/m J. 5c m HCAS ATE OFFICE.

CHARLES W. RUDOLPH AND IUILLIAM J. SCHLACKS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

RATCHET DRIVE.

1,426,109. Specification of Application filed April 1,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES IV. RU- DOLPH and WILLIAM J. SCHLACKS, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ratchet Drives; and we do hereby declare the following to be a. full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention has for its object to provide an improved frictional ratchet drive adapted for many different applications to convert oscillatory or reciprocating motion into rotary motion in a constant direction, but especially adapted for use in locomotive lubricators. It is a common practice to use frictional ratchet devices in connection with locomotive lubricators to slowly and intermittent-ly rotate pump-actuating cans from an oscillatory arm driven by a reciprocating part of the engine.

The objects accomplished by our invention will be more readily understood after havingfirst described in detail the preferred form of the frictional ratchet drive illustrated in the accompanying drawings.- In the said drawings, like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings Fig. 1 is a transverse vertical section taken on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2, and showing the frictional ratchet drive applied to a locomotive lubricator; and

Fig. 2 isan axial vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, some parts being broken away and some parts being shown in full.

The numeral 3 indicates, as an entirety, the oil reservoir of a lubricator pump which may be assumed to be of the general type known to the locomotive trade as the Me- Cord lubricator, or which may be of the general type disclosed in the McCanna Patent 822,684, of date, June 5, 1906, but which may, nevertheless, be of'any other type of lubricator, so far as the present invention is concerned.

In lubricators of the McCord type or of the McCanna patent, the pumps that deliver oil. from the reservoir are operated by a cam or cams carried by a shaft that is given slow intermittent rotary .motion in a con- LetterSPateM- Patented Aug. 15, 1922.

1920. Serial No. 370,517.

stant direction through certain pawl and ratchet devices; and in the accompanying drawings, our improved frictional driving I ratchet is shown as applied in. alubricator of the above character, to convert the oscillatory movement of-an engine driven crank arm into slow intermittent rotary movement in a constant direction in the cam shaft of the pump.

The shell of the reservoir 3, at one side, is formed with a large recess 4 that is closed at its outer side by a detachable head 5 secured to the adjacent wall of the reservoir shell by machine screws 6, or otherwise. A rotary driven sleeve 7 is journaled in an axial bearing 8-formed in the inner wall of the chamber 4, and this sleeve 7 is provided with a radial portion 9 that terminates in a laterally projecting ring flange 10 that is concentric to the axis of the sleeve 7 and the periphery of which runs close to but out of frictional contact with a surrounding annular roller runway 11 that forms the peripheral wall of the recess 4 and, as shown, is formed integral with the shell of the reservoir.

An oscillatory driving shaft 12 extends axially through the recess 4, and is journaled in the driven sleeve 7 and in a sleevelike hub'13 of the head 5. Said hub 13 is provided with a packing box 14 to form a fluid tight joint between the shaft and hub. The said shaft 12, at its outer end, is provided with a radially projecting arm 15, which, as is usual, will be connected to and driven from a running part of the locomotive.

Keyed, or otherwise rigidly secured to the driving shaft 12 and working immediately within the ring flange 10, with its periph eral portion out of contact with, but running close to the interior of said ring flange, is a so-called clutch hub 16.

Clutch hub 16 is provided with aplurality of roller receiving pockets 17, the bottoms 17 of which are preferably flat and converge in a common direction in respect to the roller runway afforded by the surrounding inner surface of the ring flange 10. lVorking within the pockets 17 are clutch rollers 18, which, when at the large ends of the pockets 17, are subject to laterally spring pressed plungers 19 seated in the hub 16. The ring flange 10 is provided with a plurality of roller pockets 20, the bottoms of which are preferably flat and converge in a common direction in respect to the roller runway 11. Here, however, it is important to note that the bottoms 17 f of the pockets 17 incline circumferentially in one direction, and the bottoms 20* of the pockets 20 incline circumferentially in the opposite direction. Working within the pockets 20 are approximately at the same point, and this will tend to wear depressions in the bottoms of the roller pockets. necessary in the various different arrangemerits of suchclutch devices, to case harden or temper the entire members in which pockets a-re'formed, and this, as is evident, is an expensive operation. The. inside of the runway 11, which is cast as a part of the reservoir, should be of soft metal having a high co-efliciency of friction. The rollers 21 should be of hard metal and the steel insert 23, as well. as the plungers 22 and 19 should be of'hard metal in order that, on the release, the rollers will engage soft .metal of high co-efliciency of friction, and

in that way avoid weari of the flat spots. F or the same reason, the lnternal surface of ring flange 10 should be of soft material of high co-efliciency of friction in order that rollers-18 will get a good grip in the releasing action.

We have solved this particular problem and made possible the use of soft iron for the bodies of the pocketed members, by inserting hardened pins 23 at the bottoms of the pockets and, as illustrated, in the members 10 and 16, as best shown in Fig. 1. For the application of these hardened wearing pins 23, holes can be bored, the pins driven therein, and then the pins ground ofl flush with the bottoms of the roller pockets. With this arrangement, the wear will come against the hardened pins. These hardened pins will wear for a very long time and if they should become worn, so as to interfere with the clutch actions, they can be reground or can be replaced by other rollers.

'- The operation of the so-called' ratchet drive is probably obvious, but may be briefly stated as follows:

When crank arm 15 is oscillated in a direction to cause shaft 12 and hub- 16 .to oscillate in the direction of. the arrow marked on Fig. 1, clutch rollers 18 will be cramped between the pocket bottoms 17 and the in- Hitherto, it has been said hub, thereby moving with it cam driving sleeve 7 so that the pumps will then be operated. Under the above direction of movement of ring flange 10, clutch rollers 21 will be revolved and crowded toward the large ends of pocket 20, and hence, will not prevent the above noted rotation of said ring flange.

"When crank arm 15 is oscillated in the direction opposite from that just above stated, clutch hub 16 will be oscillated in a direction opposite to that indicated by the arrow on Fig. 1, and under this direction of oscillation, clutch rollers 18 will be revolved and forced toward the large ends of pockets 17, and hence, will be released so that they will not produce a driving action, except a very slight tendency to rotate rin flange 10 backward, due to alight frictiona contact between rollers 18 and said ring flange; but at this'time, any tendency to backward rotation of ring flange 10 will cause rollers 21 to be pinched between the bottoms of pockets 20 and roller runway 11, thereby locking said ring flange against backward rotation with the hub 16.

Not. only is the above described arrangement of the clutch actuating members simple and highly eflicient, but itprovides a device, the elements of which may be easily assembled, and which may be always inspected by simply removing the head 5. Moreover, it permits the oscillatory driving shaft 12 to be given good bearing both in the outer hub and in the driven sleeve 7, and it permits the sleeve 7 or shaft extension thereof to be carried through the oil reservoir to the opposite wall thereof, and there provided with an additional bearing. lit assembles the two sets .of clutch actuating elements in a concentric arrangement in approximately the same plane, and thus gives a very compact, as well as highly efficient arrangement.

The so-called clutch rollers herein disclosed and preferably employed are cylindrical members, but such rollers might take 8 .other forms, and might, for example, be

spherical or in the form of balls.

What we claim is:

1. A frictional; ratchet drive comprising an oscillatory hub provided with peripheral cam-actuating pockets and rollers therein,

a ring flange surrounding said hub and the rollers thereof, and provided with periphtion of said ring flange, and means at the other side of said hub for oscillating said driving shaft. 1

2. The combination with an oil reservoir having in one side a recess and provided with a detachable head inclosing said recess, said head having an axial bearing hub, a driven sleeve journaled in the inner wall of said recess and provided with a ring flange working in said recess and running close to the surrounding wall thereof so that the latter affords a roller runway, a driving shaft extended through said recess and journaled in the hub of said head and in said driven sleeve, and a hub secured to said shaft within said ring flange, said hub and ring flange having peripheral roller pockets that converge circumferentially in opposite directions, and clutch rollers in the pockets CHAR-LES W. RUDOLPH. WILLIAM J. SCHLACKS.

lVitnesses:

' ARTHUR H. WIEDEMAN,

OLIVER H. NEAL. 

